1940: Taking over French Cinema

2019 9.0 (4 votes) 0h 55m

Official Website

Genres

Documentary History TV Movie

Production Companies

Talweg Production
France Télévisions
Histoire TV

1940: Taking over French Cinema (1940, main basse sur le cinéma français)

Overview

Paris, 1940. German occupation forces create a new film production company, Continental, and put Alfred Greven – producer, cinephile, and opportunistic businessman – in charge. During the occupation, under Joseph Goebbels’s orders, Greven hires the best artists and technicians of French cinema to produce successful, highly entertaining films, which are also strategically devoid of propaganda. Simultaneously, he takes advantage of the confiscation of Jewish property to purchase film theaters, studios and laboratories, in order to control the whole production line. His goal: to create a European Hollywood. Among the thirty feature films thus produced under the auspices of Continental, several are, to this day, considered classics of French cinema.